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Description

Description: This award-winning national bestseller tells the true story of Bob Elliott, a 19-year-old Canadian tank commander, and Sussie Cretier, a 10-year-old Dutch girl who met during the Second World War. Sussie’s family had run across a mine field, dodging German bullets to seek refuge with the Canadian soldiers. This feisty little girl quickly became a good-luck charm and beacon of hope for the weary Canadian troops.

​On Christmas Day 1944, the Canadians honoured their little adopted soldier with a special Army-style coat they ordered from a local seamstress. Decades later, the relationship between Sussie (Sue) and Bob not only endured but flourished. As adults, they fell in love and Sue followed Bob back to Canada, bringing her beloved ‘little coat’ with her. Due to author Alan Buick’s interest in this amazing true story, Sue and Bob donated her special child’s coat to the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa, Ontario as a permanent reminder of this powerful tale of courage, hope and love. $4,500 from sales of The Little Coat has been donated to the Royal Canadian Legion Dominion Command Poppy Trust Fund. $1 from every book sold from 2013 forward is donated to the Canadian War Museum, the new home of the ‘child’s coat’ in this inspiring war story turned love story.

Awards/Honours: Honourable Mention, 2010 Hollywood Book Festival
ISBN 978-0-9810394-3-5; 6″w x 9″h; 176 pages; 40 photos. © ​2009. Second printing 2011. Ages 10 to Adult; Nonfiction; Canadian Military History; Canadian history; Second World War; Canadian hero; Dutch girl; Canadian Armed Forces; Netherlands; Inspirational nonfiction; Biography; Love story; Remembrance Day; Literacy; Canadian War Museum; Canadian wartime artifact; Sussie Cretier’s coat; Royal Canadian Legion; Saskatchewan author; Canadian.

Also available as an e-book from Kobo, Apple, Amazon, and more. Search e-book vendor sites by book title or author name.

About the Author: Alan Buick is a carpenter, musician, and songwriter who came to Canada from his New Zealand birthplace in 1974. He lives in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada, with his wife Carol.

Responses from Readers:

• “This is the best book! Oh my gosh, it’s so good. I get teary just thinking about it. What a wonderful story.”
• “I told my friend, ‘You have to buy The Little Coat.’ I bought it for myself and one for my mother-in-law. She enjoyed it so much that when the coat was on display in Ottawa at the Canadian War Museum, she drove in to see it.”
• “Oh, I have goosebumps just thinking about this story!”
• “I took the book on vacation to Mexico and my family was teasing me because I was reading it and crying. Then my father-in-law read it and he cried, too. They didn’t tease him, though.”
• “You don’t want to put it down. You’d better have a Kleenex in your pocket.”
• “This is a fascinating presentation of a story that deserves to be told, written in a very human and entertaining way.”
• “This book should be a movie. What a great story!”

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